WAIRARAPA MOANA
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More memories from the 1970s John Stevens recounts further experiences at Mangakino in the 1970s and a kaumātua’s story of an earlier visit to Pouākani. While attending the Supreme Court hearing of the Incorporation’s appeal against the High Court decision, about which you will read more in this issue of the Mailer, I was reminded of a story told to me by Iraia Te Whaiti. I have some difficulty reconciling the timing of this adventure, as the Main Trunk Railway was opened in 1908. Perhaps there are some whànau memories of this. Iraia told me that, as a young boy, he had been taken by his father and uncle to visit the Pouàkani lands. He recounted that they had travelled by sea to Whanganui and then by steamer up the river to Pipiriki, followed by coach to Raetihi, where they hired horses and travelled across country. During the Supreme Court hearing, counsel for Raukawa asserted that, as the land for the dam was taken before any Wairarapa Màori had occupied it, they could not now claim any special interest in it, other than as title owners. However, when questioned by Justice Joe Williams, he had to concede that there was no evidence either way. That could be said about any particular spot on a large block of land. However, I’m sure that there is evidence that Wairarapa owners visited Pouàkani before the Government started work there, even if they didn’t actually stand on the dam site! And when whànau did visit Mangakino, at about the time construction finished, what did they find? When I first visited in the early 1970s there was still plenty of evidence of how the township had been in its heyday. Although the industrial, commercial, and residential sections were handed over to the Incorporation when the Crown lease was ended, a large proportion of the land had been taken for community facilities such as the golf course, sports clubs, schools, cottage hospital and the other government and council buildings and roads and infrastructure. The leased area was certainly not all handed back. The Crown’s leasing scheme, marketing of which was managed by the Auckland real estate agency, Barfoot and Thompson, enabled the Crown to sell houses and other buildings, while the Incorporation was required to grant a perpetual land lease to the buyer. The buyers had the benefit of all the facilities provided on land taken from the Wairarapa owners. The sale and lease scheme were so important for Barfoot and Thompson that it is recounted in a whole chapter in a history of the firm.
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John Stevens
One important facility, no doubt for the locals because of its public bar, was the Mangakino Hotel developed and operated by a major Auckland hotel chain. During the early post-war period a new style of hotel came into fashion, sometimes described as a ‘motor hotel’. Government policy was to encourage tourism. They provided better quality accommodation than found in traditional country hotels, with en-suite bathrooms, private bars, and recreational facilities for guests. The Mangakino Hotel was a mini version of this, with aspirations to provide city-quality accommodation. The original clientele would have included Government officials and consultants visiting what had become the base for Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest infrastructure project since WW2. By the 1970s the hotel was struggling for custom but was a convenient place for the Committee of Management to stay. It retained all the trappings of a high-class hotel, including a private lounge bar and full dining room service, including starched white tablecloths, silver service embossed with the hotel chain badge and a full menu. For a while we were also offered entertainment.
